Health-wise

Philip Landrigan ’63 to direct new Global Public Health program

Landrigan. Image: Gary Wayne Gilbert

Dr. Philip Landrigan ’63, a pediatrician and epidemiologist, has been appointed professor of biology and named founding director of Boston College’s Global Public Health program. While working at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the 1970s, Landrigan helped build the case for children’s health against leaded gasoline. Later, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, he led the effort to monitor the health of more than 20,000 survivors of 9/11. The program at Boston College will establish a new undergraduate minor and focus research on the health impacts of environmental pollution. Landrigan will also serve as director of the newly created Global Observatory on Pollution and Health, which, in partnership with Harvard’s Chan School of Public Health and the United Nations Environment agency, will track and analyze pollution worldwide and serve as a clearinghouse for related research.